What was the last classic martial-arts film you watched?

[Drunken Monk]

Descendant of Wing Chun - Honestly one of the most frustrating kung fu movie experiences I've ever had. The fights in this one are FANTASTIC. Classic shapes incorporating Wing Chun and weapons. You can't go wrong with Norman Chun, Fung Hak On and Lee Hoi San.
But the fights are so few and far between! The movie itself is a lazy comedy with very little charm. Honestly, had this one been handled by someone with a an idea of how pacing and audience engagement works, it could have been an absolute classic.

Instead we're left with a half-arsed stroll through kung fu tropes with a pretty flawless final twenty minutes. Good god, that's a memorable finale. It's just that everything else isn't.

[sym8]

Daggers 8-1980

Directed by Wilson Tong

Starring Meng Yuen-Man,Wilson Tong,Lily Li,Alan Hsu

On a Wilson Tong trip at the moment and this is another that doesn’t disappoint.Great action and some good performances from the supporting cast,Lily Li is her usual graceful self but for me Alan Hsu duel with Wilson Tong is the standout scene from a very good movie.Would appreciate some recommendations from Wilson Tongs library as I haven’t seen that many.

[Drunken Monk]

7 minutes ago, sym8 said:

Daggers 8-1980

Directed by Wilson Tong

Starring Meng Yuen-Man,Wilson Tong,Lily Li,Alan Hsu

On a Wilson Tong trip at the moment and this is another that doesn’t disappoint.Great action and some good performances from the supporting cast,Lily Li is her usual graceful self but for me Alan Hsu duel with Wilson Tong is the standout scene from a very good movie.Would appreciate some recommendations from Wilson Tongs library as I haven’t seen that many.

You’ve probably already seen it but Wilson Tong’s fight against Leung Kar Yan in the finale of The Victim is one of the best fight scenes of all time, in my opinion. The whole film is gold.

[sym8]

8 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

You’ve probably already seen it but Wilson Tong’s fight against Leung Kar Yan in the finale of The Victim is one of the best fight scenes of all time, in my opinion. The whole film is gold.

Agreed,all the fight scene performers wether it’s Wilson,Sammo,Beardy,Chang Yi are all on point.Im moving on to Kung fu Genius,never scene it before.

[ukrevrend]

On 5/19/2020 at 11:07 PM, ShawAngela said:

I have to watch this one, then !!

Yes you do! Classic 'Shape Fu'

Bless

[ShawAngela]

Today, I rewatched Cantonese (one of the rare old school movie release in a French language dvd format ) after more than 10 years without watching it. Still enjoyable, and BIG PREMIERE !! Lung Fei plays a good guy here !! I have a lot of his movies, some watched since so long ago that I don't even remember what they are about, some still to be watched, but in my mind, this actor is a villain in all of his roles. Maybe I'm mistaken, since I found at least one movie in which he is a good guy. Does anyone knows any other movies in which he plays a good guy or even a hero ?

I also rewatched my French language dvd release of Shaolin and Taichi. I had forgotten how good it was.

The guy who plays the taichi monk isn't even mentioned in the cast on hkmdb, but it seems to me that he looks a lot like Wong Shu Tong.

The first picture is the actor in this movie, and the two others are Wong Shu Tong's. Let me know what you think, members. Could it be him ?

 

[ShawAngela]

I rewatched The loot this evening !

I had forgotten most of the plot, and I enjoyed it a lot. I loved the fake and humoristic rivalry between Norman Tsui and David Chiang, it worked very well.

I noticed that there are some mistakes in the subtitles : for instance, when Ko Fei is introduced, it's said that he is an "assistant", while the Mandarin language says that he is a killer.

Also, David Chiang is called Willy, while his name is Yang Wei...

[JackieRome]

The Victim: Too bad it hasn't been restored. Great movie with little humor and many well done combat scenes. The general look of the sets and settings looks like a by-product of Taiwan, they probably didn't have much money. However, the fight scenes are very good and the story at that absurd ending is worth it. 7/10

[Graeme Of Death]

11 hours ago, JackieRome said:

The Victim: Too bad it hasn't been restored. Great movie with little humor and many well done combat scenes. The general look of the sets and settings looks like a by-product of Taiwan, they probably didn't have much money. However, the fight scenes are very good and the story at that absurd ending is worth it. 7/10

Another one that's on my re-watch list that I remember nothing about. Need to watch it this week.

[Graeme Of Death]

Watched Drunken Master again, absolute classic. Watched the commentary on the Eureka blu ray, not impressed, I'll take dodgy Bey any day over these two. They're not even sure if the big guy in the tea room is Bolo Yeung or not.

[JackieRome]

1 hour ago, Graeme Of Death said:

Watched Drunken Master again, absolute classic. Watched the commentary on the Eureka blu ray, not impressed, I'll take dodgy Bey any day over these two. They're not even sure if the big guy in the tea room is Bolo Yeung or not.

If you warned me, we could see him together again...we live so close

[DrNgor]

1 hour ago, Graeme Of Death said:

They're not even sure if the big guy in the tea room is Bolo Yeung or not.

If they were worth their salt, they'd know it was Lee Chun Wah (and could confirm that via the HKMDB), who also showed up in the DM rip-off Goose Boxer.

[ShawAngela]

I just finished to watch Snake Deadly Act, that I had in my boxes since years...

What a SUPERB, GREAT, EXCELLENT movie, regarding both the plot and the fights !!

I can't believe that I have waited for so long to watch it !!

I just read that the leading actor refused to play in other movies, that's too bad.

Ko Fei, Wilson Tong, Angela Mao, Chen Hui Min, Fung Hark On were all great in the movie, and Chen Hong Yip and Bolo in their short appearances were also very good.

And the music is very good too !

I strongly recommend this movie !

Edited May 24, 2020 by ShawAngela

[sym8]

The One Armed Boxer-1972

Directed by Wang Yu

Starring Wang Yu,Lung Fei

Not a fan of Wang Yu but I do love this film.Great fight scenes(even though they are the wavey wavey style)decent story and great looking sets plus I love the opening music over the credits,for me his best work but that’s not difficult because like I said not a real fan.

Avenging Boxer-1979

Directed by Jimmy Shaw

Starring Casanova Wong,Hwa Ling,Chang Chi-Long

Having seen the list of his films on City On Fire I gave this a watch and woo what a film,when there’s not too much going on it just drags but when the action starts(and there is quite a bit)this just rises to the top.The Finale is fantastic,set in a barn/warehouse this definitely rivals Shaolin Daredevils and with Casanova’s kicking ability we get a classic 2v1 finale that’s a must for people that haven’t seen it.Outside of Warriors Two this is for me is one of his best.👍👍👍👍

[ukrevrend]

20 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

I just finished to watch Snake Deadly Act, that I had in my boxes since years...

What a SUPERB, GREAT, EXCELLENT movie, regarding both the plot and the fights !!

I can't believe that I have waited for so long to watch it !!

I just read that the leading actor refused to play in other movies, that's too bad.

Ko Fei, Wilson Tong, Angela Mao, Chen Hui Min, Fung Hark On were all great in the movie, and Chen Hong Yip and Bolo in their short appearances were also very good.

And the music is very good too !

I strongly recommend this movie !

Knew you'd like this!

Bless

[ShawAngela]

Movies of the day, all first watching.

The divine martial arts of Dharma : the only actors's faces I was familiar with were Kam Kong and Pearl Lin Yi Zhu in this  movie. Not bad, but these Korean movies definitely don't have the same flavour as the Chinese movies...

Filthy guy : this movie tells the story of the first Emperor Ming. I enjoyed it, and Sammo is great, as usual. Yueh Hua has only a very short role and a very short fight.

Dragon lives again : I couldn't help but laugh at some scenes, enjoyable movie. I don't remember if someone had mentioned Bruce Liang as a great kicker in the thread that was devoted to the bes on screen kickers. If not, I think that he deserves to be mentioned there.

Exit the dragon, enter the tiger : Great movie, I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end.

[Drunken Monk]

I've just watched Shaolin Temple Against Lama for the first time and, quite frankly, I have no idea why Shaolin vs Lama is considered a classic and this isn't. Is it because Wu Tang Clan sampled Shaolin vs Lama so much?
Shaolin Temple Against Lama doesn't carry the gravitas of a Shaw Brothers feature and it doesn't want to. It aims to give its audience wall to wall fights and achieves it in every way, shape and form. I fucking LOVED this movie. It's a genuine five star film for me. Ballistic choreography, insane outfits, goofy bad guys... It has everything I need. Sure, the undercranking is a little too much here and there but it's managed really well for the most part.

I once again have to salute @DrNgor for recommending this one. A true classic in my eyes.

[DrNgor]

11 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

I've just watched Shaolin Temple Against Lama for the first time and, quite frankly, I have no idea why Shaolin vs Lama is considered a classic and this isn't. Is it because Wu Tang Clan sampled Shaolin vs Lama so much?
Shaolin Temple Against Lama doesn't carry the gravitas of a Shaw Brothers feature and it doesn't want to. It aims to give its audience wall to wall fights and achieves it in every way, shape and form. I fucking LOVED this movie. It's a genuine five star film for me. Ballistic choreography, insane outfits, goofy bad guys... It has everything I need. Sure, the undercranking is a little too much here and there but it's managed really well for the most part.

I once again have to salute @DrNgor for recommending this one. A true classic in my eyes.

After your lukewarm reaction to the first Young Hero of Shaolin, I was afraid that you were going to ignore my other recommendations. Glad you enjoyed this one immensely. I need to revisit it myself now.

[ShawAngela]

The boatman fighters : first watching. What a superb non stop action movie telling the story of Cheung Po Tsai (who was impersonated by Ti Lung in The pirate) before he becomes a pirate. I'm going to get enemies here, but I think that this movie is even better than The pirate. And the two fighting girls are excellent and add something to the movie.

Swift shaolin boxer : Second watching after 10 years. Well...I had found it a little bit to follow the first time, and it was a little bit the same today. Barry Chan's motives aren't really explained. But the fights are good, and I had bought it for Angela Mao and she has good fights here.

[ShawAngela]

I forgot to mention that except Chin Ti and another old actor, none of the other actors' faces were familiar to me in the movie The Boatman fighters.

I spotted Yuen Biao as one of the Japanese's men, though.

[Drunken Monk]

Snake and Crane Secret - An annoyingly dull plot with characters yelling “We must get that book!” every ninety seconds. The fights are certainly entertaining but it definitely feels like the kung fu takes a back seat to an overly convoluted mess of characters trying to pin down Mang Fei.

The most notable thing about this entire movie is Dean Shek playing it straight for once.

Not one I’ll ever revisit. Like I said, fine fights but even those aren’t going to blow your socks off. Doarian Tan Tao Liang is always a pleasure though.

[DrNgor]

46 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

The most notable thing about this entire movie is Dean Shek playing it straight for once.

 

He plays it straight in Mantis Fist and Tiger Claws of Shaolin, which is like a kung fu variation of I Spit on Your Grave and a horror/werewolf twist.

[ShawAngela]

1 hour ago, Drunken Monk said:

The most notable thing about this entire movie is Dean Shek playing it straight for once.

 

35 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

He plays it straight in Mantis Fist and Tiger Claws of Shaolin,

He also doesn't do any comedy (or at least no overplayed comedy) in Chinese superior kung fu, Breakout from oppression and A queen's ransom, and maybe in one or two more that I haven't watched as yet.

ANd taking a look at his filmography, I just saw that he played in A LOT of Shaws' movies, and there are some pictures of him in which he is hardly recognizeable when he was young...

[Drunken Monk]

Alright, alright. So Dean Shek isn’t goofy in a lot of movies. I just happened to notice it specifically in this one.

[Drunken Monk]

Since I asked why Shaolin Temple Against Lama isn’t considered on the same level as Shaolin vs Lama, I decided to watch Shaolin vs Lama.

I get why now.

Both are five star kung fu movies in my eyes but Shaolin vs Lama is better made, has crisper choreography and doesn’t rely on wacky undercranking. This movie really is the classic people say it is. A true kung fu movie through and through.

I don’t know much about Peng Kang as a fight choreographer. Did he ever reach the dizzying heights on this movie again? Are there some gems he choreographed I should look out for?

It was nice to watch this in widescreen for the first time too. It may not be the best print but at least half the action isn’t off screen.

Great movie. Perhaps not as brimming over with fights as some but it’s a richer tale. Love it.